Perfecting Punctures at Westfield Park
by Morag
Morag and Neil had a great session with the youth club at Westfield Park Community Center on Wednesday 26th February with our mechanic Neil leading it. He showed the children the practical skill of how to remove a tyre and fix a puncture. This procedure is a useful skill that introduces independence and confidence into the lives of young people. Many of them had brought their own bike along so they could learn how to do it on their own bike if needed, however we had various bikes from our bike library there to practice on too.
We took them through the process of removing a wheel, and how to do it on their own bikes if they had brought them and then went on to using tyre levers to remove the tyre from the bikes. After the inner tube was removed, they took turns creating a ‘puncture’ on our practice tubes with a pin and finding the puncture within their groups. This brought great excitement, and some tyres ended up with a couple of punctures. The kids were then shown how to use the ParkTool puncture repair kit and patch up the puncture/punctures! They then put the tyre back onto the wheel and the wheel back onto the bike. They all did amazing and picked it up very quickly!
The children were very enthusiastic and keen to learn, they had never done it before and were very pleased with themselves at the end of the session.
One of the girls participating said that she loved learning how to fix a puncture and she hopes her bike gets one now! Another boy said that he had fun learning about his bike and would like to learn more.
The majority of the children had had a puncture before but were unable to fix it themselves, which resulted in an adult having to come pick them up however they all left with the confidence to it themselves if it were to happen again in the future!
A big thank you to Neil, our mechanic, for leading such a fun and informative session!
